Vasily Grossman is one of Russia’s greatest twentieth-century writers, possibly the very best. A new biography tells the story of the life of an author who should be better known and recognised for his achievements. Sean Sheehan Grossman knew only too well the twin horrors of the twentieth […]
Book reviews
The disappearing world of the Penans
A brief encounter with a Penan is burned into my memory. I was following a pathway, a mere stroll before darkness fell in the Kelabit Highlands in Sarawak where I was on a two-day trek. Sean Sheehan He stepped out of the trees on one side, about to […]
Troy: myths and realities
The exhibition currently on show at the British Museum is called Troy: Myth and Reality but some plurals could have been used. Multiple myths and realities, some of an urgently contemporary kind, have created more than one Troy. Sean Sheehan An ancient city close to the northwest coast […]
What does a map tell you?
Herodotus tells a story in “Histories” (5.49-54) about Aristagoras, the leader of a rebellion against the mighty Persian Empire, visiting Sparta to solicit military support. His sales pitch comes complete with a visual aid, a world map engraved on a bronze plate. Sean Sheehan Aristagoras uses the map […]
A love so beautiful
Roy Orbison, in unmatched songs like “A love so beautiful”, evokes the poignancy of a partnership remembered but it takes the letters between two young Germans, written between late 1944 and early 1945, to ground the piercing tenderness in an all-too-real relationship. Sean Sheehan When the Nazis gained […]